Manchester City could sign Barcelona right-back Nelson Semedo in a player plus cash deal, with Joao Cancelo going the other way. Cancelo, who was signed by City only last summer for a fee of £27.4 million and Danilo going to Juventus, has struggled to make a mark in the highly competitive City team.
According to Sport, City are keen on signing Nelson Semedo in the summer and the two clubs have begun preliminary talks. The Premier League side are willing to add Cancelo in any deal which will bring Semedo to the Etihad, but they will also have to pay a fee. Barca reportedly want €45 million for their Portuguese right-back whose contract with the club is set to expire in 2022.
He was keen on leaving the Nou Camp last year but was promised more first-team action, which hasn’t quite materialised. It seems like Semedo will surely move in the summer.
Player plus cash for Nelson Semedo: Should Manchester City make this bid?
There was a great deal of hype and hoopla when City signed Joao Cancelo from Juventus last summer, with many expecting him to add more venom to City’s attack with his driving runs from right full-back. But, it hasn’t quite worked out as he or Guardiola would have liked. Cancelo has struggled to settle in and hasn’t quite earned the confidence of his manager.
Cancelo was signed to provide competition to Kyle Walker as former right-back Danilo was less than impressive at City as well. And just under a year since he was signed, for a huge fee, Guardiola is considering letting go of Cancelo with the player demanding more playing time but not managing to impress the team management in the opportunities he got.
Nelson Semedo, like Cancelo, is an attacking full-back, who likes to gallop forward and put in menacing crosses. The Portuguese international is quick, skilful, and loves to bomb forward, which makes him the perfect full-back in a Guardiola set-up. City should pursue a deal if the manager has lost trust in Cancelo and feels that there’s no coming back for the 25-year-old.
But, City shouldn’t pay over the odds for Semedo, as they desperately need to sign at least one world-class centre-back, which will cost a lot of money. Typically, players Guardiola sign, take around a season to get up to speed with their best output materialising from the second season onwards.
The Sky Blues already have an excellent player in Kyle Walker, who has taken his game up a notch and there is no urgency to tend to the right fullback area right now. And given the uncertainty surrounding the football season and the FFP regulations breathing down their neck, City cannot afford to keep splashing on new fullbacks.
